Mass Effect: The Road Not Taken
by WhiteZephyr
Summary: What if there was one more option? What if it didn't have to end the way it did? The last option may not have been obvious to anyone, but with it, will the galaxy be able to hail Commander Jane Shepard as a hero? With the appearance of a new crew member, can Earth truly be saved? Two-shot. Takes place in ME2 in the first part and ME3 in the second. F!Shepard and Garrus mentioned.
1. Part One

Mass Effect:

The Road Not Taken

Part One

Commander Jane Shepard had thought she'd seen it all. From Saren and the geth to Sovereign the Reaper, Jane believed that she could handle anything sent her way.

Until, well, now.

She stared at Joker incredulously, her green eyes taking him in. He was dead serious. What he'd just said... He was _dead serious_.

"EDI?" Jane prompted.

"Mr. Moreau is one-hundred percent correct, Commander," the AI responded. "The soldier is in the med-bay as we speak."

Jane rubbed her eyes, moving strands of her red hair out of them as she did so. "Just so we're clear... What, exactly, happened again?"

Joker took his eyes off of the Commander and began piloting the ship again. "I was flying the ship, obviously, 'cause I never move, when we came by Horizon." Joker motioned to the planet with his head. "You guys went down there, and I was innocently still piloting when an N7 soldier hit my window shield."

"In _space_?" the Commander asked.

"In space," Joker confirmed.

Jane shook her head. "And what's the status of this soldier?"

"Stable," EDI answered. "Dr. Chakwas is handling the soldier. In her care, their survival odds have increased seven-fold."

"What do we know about this soldier?" Jane pressed. "Other than they wear N7 armour."

"Their armour was created within the last two years," EDI explained. "However, the battle damage to the armour indicates many years of use. Further pursuit of records into the soldier's identity reveals no information."

Jane's brow furrowed. The fact that EDI couldn't find anything on them was big. Jane's curiosity piqued as she studied the holographic blue orb that was their ship's AI.

"Dr. Chakwas will allow me to see them, right?" she asked.

"Affirmative. Dr. Chakwas has requested your presence involving the matter."

Nodding, the Commander made her way from the cockpit to the elevator, taking the long strides she always did whenever she was in a rush. In the elevator, she hit the button that would take her to the med-bay and crossed her arms impatiently. The soldier was wearing N7 armour, and yet there were no records of them?

The elevator doors slid open, and as Jane stepped out Garrus intercepted her. The turian still had a bandage on the right side of his face from the rocket he'd attempted to dodge, and he was in his trademark blue armour. His crystal-blue eyes gave his thoughts away; he wanted to speak to her.

"Shepard," the turian acknowledged. "Can we talk for a minute?"

Garrus Vakarian was possibly one of the only ones on the _Normandy SR-2_ that Commander Shepard would ever willingly stop for when she was in a rush. Perhaps that was one of the reasons she had recently admitted her feelings towards the turian...? Jane wasn't sure, but she did know that both she and Garrus had been taken off-guard when she'd admitted them. Jane stepped to the side and leaned against the wall, tucking her hands behind her back and giving the officer her full attention.

Garrus scratched one of his mandibles with a taloned finger. "About this soldier..." He cleared his throat. "I've got a pretty good idea who they are."

Jane was all ears. "How?"

"She served with me when I was 'Archangel'." Garrus crossed his arms. "She disappeared when my squad died. I figured she was dead, but..."

"Wait, 'she'?"

"Right. She said her name was 'Verana Hidparkas'. Didn't talk much after that." Garrus smiled as much as his turian physiology would allow him to. "But she was a damn good shot with a sniper rifle."

"Did she wear that armour?" Jane asked.

Garrus nodded. "Never saw her without it. Reminded me of yours, to be honest, and she managed to keep with the colour scheme of my little band of misfits."

Jane rolled her eyes, but she was grinning. "Been in to see her yet?"

"I saw her through the window," the turian admitted, shrugging his slender shoulders.

Jane motioned for him to follow, and so they made their way to the med-bay. The doors slid open with ease, revealing the recently upgraded white room. Dr. Chakwas was examining a datapad, writing in some notes, no doubt, when the two entered, and so she respectfully shut it off for the moment.

"Commander," the old doctor regarded, "Garrus. Thank-you for responding so quickly."

"No trouble, Doctor," Jane assured her. Her eyes flickered over to the only occupied bed. "Our soldier?"

Dr. Chakwas motioned towards the figure clad in blue, with a secondary red colour. Jane recognized most of the armour: the N7 soldier was wearing a Recon Hood with red lights, a Hahne-Kedar chestplate, Armax Arsenal shoulder guards, Hahne-Kedar arm gauntlets and Hahne-Kedar greaves. EDI had been right; it looked like the armour had gone through hell. Multiple scrapes, scratches and dents in the armour took away from the colour, and there looked to be a rupture in the armour's left gauntlet, as if something had stabbed Verana through the arm. There was a thick purple substance around the area, but no sign of a wound.

"I've had her on life-support for a while now," Dr. Chakwas explained readily. "Her condition is stable now, but it could possibly change. There is no guarantee that she will awaken, either."

"So, how do you know it's a girl?" Jane asked.

Dr. Chakwas smiled. "She told me so, before she fell into her coma."

"She's in a coma?!" Garrus exclaimed.

She nodded. "For now, yes. Though I hope she will reawaken soon. I can't get that mask off of her for the life of me, and there's a broken voice-changer under there as well."

"A voice changer?" Jane repeated.

"She had that when she joined-up with me," Garrus explained. "But even though she had it, she was quite avid in defending her gender. She was... confusing."

"Speaking of which..." Jane cleared her throat. "Why in the world was she floating through space?"

Garrus scratched his head. "I can't say I know the answer to that, Shepard."

"Perhaps I may be of assistance?" EDI perked up, appearing in her corner of the room. "After further analysis, I have discovered footage from Horizon that includes this soldier."

A screen descended from the roof. Garrus grunted his surprise while Jane whistled low.

"Even though I don't like the guy," Garrus muttered, "the Illusive Man sure has taste."

"Tell me about it," Jane replied.

On the screen, it showed Verana walking around Horizon, an assault rifle and sniper rifle strapped to her back. The attack of the Collector's forced her into action. The camera changed to an angle that observed the Collector ship. Verana was a capable fighter, and managed to get to the ship. The doors closed on her, so she fearlessly began to scale the ship. However, some "Dragon's Teeth" (mechanical spikes that erupt from wherever they'd been planted and impale their victims, transforming them into husks) shot out of the walls of the Collector ship. Verana was clearly heard screaming as it impaled through her arm, but she managed to pull her arm off.

Garrus glanced back at Verana and examined her broken gauntlet, as Jane had before, but his attention returned to the screen when he heard the Collector ship taking off. He, Shepard and the thief Kasumi had been on Horizon then. Verana was holding onto the ship desperately, and then the ship went off-screen.

"She must've let go when they reached space," Garrus observed.

Dr. Chakwas activated her datapad. "She healed from that wound. I've taken pictures of the blood around it, but it's as if she'd never gotten hurt."

Jane tapped her chin thoughtfully. She had no idea what to do with the N7 soldier, so she looked to Garrus. He shrugged.

"Keep her here for a bit," he suggested. "If she wakes up, I highly recommend her as an ally. She's never let me down."

Jane nodded. "Doctor," she said, "if she wakes up, let me know immediately. Please take care of her."

"Of course, Commander," the doctor agreed. "Finally, I will have my time taken up. You two only ever come to me for help if rockets explode beside you."

Garrus shook his head. "Ha ha, Chakwas," he grumbled. "Very funny."

It was later that night that Jane crept from her Captain's quarters to the mess hall to grab something to eat. Having been too sick to her stomach earlier to eat due to the crap she'd experienced on Horizon (what with Ashley blatantly accusing her of siding with Cerberus), now she was ravenous. The Mess Sergeant Rupert Gardner was fast asleep, just like most of the rest of the crew. When she glanced through the window of the med-bay, she could see that Dr. Chakwas was sleeping in one of the beds, just in case Verana was having trouble. Jane felt sorry that the doctor would be sleeping there for a while, due to Verana's coma.

Jane made something quick to eat and didn't waste time in wolfing down the food. She thanked herself for being in the right mind to get those better rations that Gardner had asked her to get. Her stomach thanked her too.

The Commander was on her way back to her cabin when she heard someone in the mess. Certain that no one had passed her and that she hadn't seen anyone, Jane peeked around the corner. She thought that, maybe, Garrus would be there, but it definitely wasn't him.

Now that she could properly see Verana standing up, Jane noted that the woman was probably as tall as she was, if not taller. Verana peered into the fridge, massaging her once-injured arm and crouching to look at the bottom shelves. The soldier sighed, their voice changer now audible to Jane. The Commander glanced at the med-bay to make sure that she wasn't just imagining Verana, but she was, indeed, missing from bed.

Jane crept up behind the N7 operative and glanced over their shoulder. Verana was examining some of the dextro foods, to which Jane raised an eyebrow at, but she replaced them on the shelf of the fridge and grabbed some human-friendly food instead.

However, the soldier hesitated. Suddenly, she sprang up, slamming the door of the fridge closed and sending a kick Jane's way. If she hadn't been trained the way she had, Jane wouldn't have been able to block it. Jane raised her arm and deflected the kick away from her head, and quickly jumped back to prevent any up-close attacks. Verana reached for her thigh and tried to grab at something—a pistol, Jane noted—but realized that it wasn't there.

"It's not nice if you attack someone out of the blue," Jane quipped, holding her fists in front of her in a ready position.

Verana didn't say a word, and instead crouched, her arms ready to catch either of Jane's non-existent punches. Jane saw Verana tense, and her fingers took on a "clawed" guise to expel the tension.

A few seconds passed in silence before the door to the main battery room slid open. Garrus strode down the hallway and frowned when he saw the two human women.

"Verana, stand down!" he ordered with every bit of authority that a turian General would have over his troops.

Verana's head snapped to him, and she clenched and unclenched her hands for a moment before she stood up and saluted him. Jane had to laugh at the display; Verana must have really respected Garrus when they were in the squad together.

"Didn't expect to see you up so soon, kid," the turian admitted, cracking a very turian smile. "Didn't expect you to be letting off steam with Commander Shepard, either."

Verana's salute ended and she turned to Jane. She nodded her head; Jane decided that it would be the closest thing to an apology that she would get.

"No problem," Jane assured the N7 soldier. "You just surprised me."

"I think Dr. Chakwas is going to get the worst shock," Garrus quipped. "Shepard, shouldn't you be asleep?"

Jane shrugged. "I got hungry. Sue me."

Garrus' eyes moved to Verana. "And I suppose that's why you're up, too?"

The soldier nodded. Garrus sighed. "Well, I hope they've got your favourite food on here. I don't want you following me everywhere again. That was disturbing."

Jane went to the fridge and picked up the plate of food that Verana had been looking at. "Here; after this, I'd appreciate it if you went back to the med-bay and got some sleep. I want to speak with you in the morning."

Verana accepted the plate of food, nodded to the Commander, and began to heat it up. She seemed to know her way around the ship.

"Sorry about that, Shepard," Garrus apologized. "She probably didn't realize who you were."

Jane shrugged. "I snuck up on her. It's mostly my fault."

The turian officer glanced at Verana, who sat down at a table to eat. She'd lifted her Recon Hood up to just beneath her nose, and so her pale skin showed as she ate.

"She's a good kid," Garrus told the Commander. "But she's got a hell of a mouth when you piss her off. I got to experience that _once_, and prayed to the Spirits that I'd never have to go through _that_ again."

"So I take it she's mostly calm?"

Garrus shrugged. "Verana doesn't like being forced to overlook something that's happening in front of her. She'll want to act, but if ordered to stop, she will. You can tell what she wants from her body language though."

Jane and Garrus watched the soldier eat for a time before she got up and placed her dish in the sink, like Jane had just a few minutes ago. She regarded the two for a minute before heading back to the med-bay. Jane trusted that she'd stay in there for a time.

"Well, I've got to get back to calibrating," Garrus mumbled. "I'll see you around, Shepard."

Jane nodded and watched the blue-clad turian go. "Yeah... You too."

_/-\_

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya (or vas Normandy, as she was now known) haunched over her console in Engineering and glanced at the buttons with a dull interest. At the moment, she just didn't feel like doing anything to the _Normandy_. She had a minor headache, no doubt caused by Engineers Daniels and Donnelly, who were constantly blabbering about things Shepard could do to improve the ship, and that they hoped she would come down soon so they could explain this to her. Tali wondered why they didn't just ask EDI to tell Shepard.

The quarian tapped the glass of her helmet in thought. She wondered if she shouldn't just get some sleep and something to eat. Her trial, and the revelations about her father, Rael'Zorah, had left her drained, but she was no less thankful that her name had been cleared of treason. Somehow, Shepard always came through for her.

Tali's thoughts were interrupted when she heard something in the deepest reaches of Engineering, where one of Shepard's newest people, a human woman named Jack, had made her home. Curious, the quarian descended the steps and peered into the darkness. Jack was grappling with the blue N7 soldier that Tali had seen around. The story was that this human, Verana Hidparkas, had hit the window shield of the _Normandy SR-2_ while Joker was piloting it, slipped into a coma when she was brought aboard, and woke up only a few hours later. Tali remembered Dr. Chakwas shaking her head when the quarian had inquired about it, as if the old doctor couldn't believe it herself.

Jack shoved the soldier back into the wall and lunged at her, her powerful biotics powering her fist. Verana side-stepped, grabbed the back of Jack's bald, tattooed head and slammed it against the wall that she'd just been pushed into. Jack wasted no time in recovering and kicking the taller woman in her chestplate, but Verana grabbed the biotic's boot and twisted her leg around, forcing Jack to look the other way. Eventually, Jack escaped her dire situation, and she and Verana hit each other for a few more minutes before the two stared each other down, panting.

And Jack was _smiling_.

Verana held a hand out to the biotic, which she grasped and shook. Tali knew that they were acknowledging one another, and they'd likely be better on the battlefield together if Shepard took them along.

"Well damn, Blue." Jack released Verana's arm and stood up, crossing her arms over her chest. "Looks like that armour's not just for show."

Verana stood up straight and gave the human biotic a thumbs-up, to which both Tali and Jack smiled.

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. None of that mushy shit though," Jack said.

Verana nodded and began to head up the opposite set of stairs, the one that Tali wasn't on. Tali silently returned up the steps and headed to the elevator, deep in thought. She wondered how Verana could get on Jack's good side so easily with just a few punches. Her own specialty was in tech, so she wasn't likely to get on the convict's good side physically. Then again, the quarian was glad that she wasn't in Yeoman Kelley Chambers' place; she didn't want to be poking and prodding at Jack to learn why she was so "crazy", as Joker put it.

Tali met Verana at the elevator. They stood in front of it together, waiting for it. Tali shook her head when she wondered why the Illusive man could afford to recreate the _Normandy_, but couldn't manufacture a faster elevator. Tali noted that the two of them, she and Verana, were similar that neither could tell if the other was examining them, due to the helmet Tali wore and the Recon Hood that seemed to be Verana's "trademark", other than the blue of her armour.

Verana crossed her arms beside the quarian and attempted to scratch an itch on her face, which seemed to fail. The soldier sighed, the static sounds of her voice changer made audible. Tali wondered why this person had to hide so much.

"Elevator."

Tali snapped out of her thoughts at the word and quickly hopped onto the elevator, seconds before the door closed. "Thanks," she replied.

Verana nodded, but said nothing else. Tali took a chance to examine the human. She couldn't help but wonder what fights she'd been in, what with all of the scuffs, scrapes and dents in her armour. She didn't seem to want to fix it, though, or else she would have at her earliest opportunity.

The elevator door opened, and so Verana stepped off, followed by Tali. The quarian watched the human stride briskly to the med-bay, where Dr. Chakwas had requested she be once every few hours for check-ups. Tali wrung her hands together in thought.

"Tali?" The quarian jumped at Shepard's voice and spun around.

"Shepard!" Tali exclaimed. "I didn't hear you..."

Shepard shrugged and rubbed the back of her head. "I was wondering if we could talk?"

Tali nodded. "Of course. What do you want to talk about?"

"I just wanted to know how you were holding up," Shepard admitted.

"Fine. Better than fine, actually. Thank-you, Shepard, for what you did in front of the Admiralty Board."

Shepard nodded slowly. "I'm not really good with politics. Can't stand 'em, but... What can you do?"

Tali laughed. "Come on, Shepard; let's get something to eat. Have I got something to tell you..."

"Ooh, is it interesting?"

"You've got no idea."

_/-\_

As per usual, Samara sat cross-legged in her quarters aboard the _Normandy SR-2_, staring out at the stars with a vague interest. Her mind was troubled, despite the peace her latest action had brought her. Samara's daughter, the Ardat-Yakshi named Morinth, had just found peace in the Goddess' embrace, thanks to Shepard.

And yet, the Justicar was troubled.

Samara stood up and stared at the stars that sped by—or, rather, that they were speeding by. In her mind, she reached for her Code. Perhaps it could give her some small comfort for her daughter's passing. She recited it in her head repeatedly until her mind had calmed, and then turned away from the view port to look at the door.

Without her realizing it, someone had entered her room. She had glanced at the blue-clad figure when she'd come aboard the _Normandy_, and when she'd left with Shepard to seek out Morinth, but she'd had no interactions with the soldier at all. A thought raced across her mind: was this person a threat? "Verana" was the name that Shepard had supplied the Justicar when she'd inquired.

As if sensing the Justicar's sudden thoughts, Verana motioned to the floor, and then to herself. She waited patiently for the asari's permission while Samara examined her.

The Justicar nodded and sat on the ground cross-legged, staring into the star-speckled blackness that was space. Verana sat beside her in the same position, and they sat in silence together, watching the stars.

One uneventful hour passed before the young human stood up and stretched her legs. Samara wondered what could have made the humans so impatient, always having to move and do something while Verana stretched. The human eventually seemed to have her blood circulating again and stared out of the view port while standing. It wasn't long after that the human decided it would be best to leave. She opened the door, but Samara could feel her pause. Exactly what did the soldier want?

"Sorry."

Samara's eyes fluttered open at the human's voice. There was likely a voice changer underneath, she noted. The asari looked back at the human, but the door had already closed. She was gone.

Samara turned back to the view port and gazed outside. Something to the right of her caught her eye. Looking to the spot that Verana had sat, she saw a small locket, with a very masterful engraving of the Ardat-Yakshi monastery on Lesuss. Samara gently took the small thing into her hands and examined it with care.

She felt that she understood why humans have to move and do something all the time.

_/-\_

Urdnot Grunt was in the happiest place he could be in his head. Pride swelled through him as he, his Battlemaster Shepard, and the tall, blue-clad human marched back to the _Normandy_. Still covered in the blood of the Thresher Maw, varren, and klixen, Grunt's elated mood made him aware of the fact that the human named Verana had multiple battle-scars on her armour—all of them old, indicating her experience as a warrior.

Grunt's blue eyes watched the human woman steadily. She hadn't replaced her assault rifle, an M-15 Vindicator, onto her back, as if she didn't consider the mission completed. With Urdnot Wrex's blessing, Grunt completed his rite of passage and became part of the krogan clan Urdnot, and so had holstered his shotgun. Shepard didn't seem to mind that the young human's weapon was out though.

Shepard was receiving a message, and so stopped in her tracks, bringing her two main fingers up to her right ear, where her headset was. Verana crouched beside some of the rubble of Tuchanka and sifted through it curiously. Grunt's eyes didn't leave the soldier. He wanted to see the reasoning behind her blatant disregard for communication. Not that he was a big fan of "talking"—Grunt preferred action, above all, but he wanted to better understand the person he'd just fought side-by-side with.

Against the klixen, varren and Thresher Maw, Verana had been fearless. She'd swapped in-between her sniper rifle (an M-98 Widow), her assault rifle, and her pistol (she carried an HMWP Master Pistol X, and to his understanding, the weapon was Spectre issue), but if any creatures came too close, she'd kill them with her fists. She and Shepard were the only humans Grunt knew that would dare do such a thing, as humans seemed to rely on their weapons the most.

Grunt stepped up behind the human and growled low in his throat. Verana seemed to understand the krogan gesture, and so she stood up and faced him, but didn't holster her weapon.

"Do you speak like the humans do?" Grunt asked.

The blue-clad human nodded slowly. The krogan grunted; he couldn't see past the red lights in the eyes of her Recon Hood, so there was no telling the human's facial expression.

"Do you know any other languages?" he pressed.

He could have described the human as looking thoughtful—her head gently tipped backwards to show him her body language, and then her head came flying at him, into the segmented crest that hadn't yet turned into a full plate like a grown korgan's. He stumbled backwards in surprise at the human, and when he looked at her, the message was clear: she understood krogan quite well.

Shepard finished with the message and led them back towards the Normandy. Grunt walked beside Verana, a smile tugging at his lips. He'd just found _two_ interesting humans.

_/-\_

It didn't matter how old they got; Kasumi adored books, especially if they were made of paper. In her quarters on the _Normandy_, she had a shelf full of them. Some of them she'd stolen, some had been given to her, and others had been bought, but they were all hers. The Executive Officer, Miranda Lawson, preferred datapads, and never failed to speak about their obvious superiority to Kasumi. But no matter what, the master thief preferred the smooth, musty-scented surface of her paper books.

That's why she was pleasantly surprised when the mysterious, blue-clad soldier named Verana asked to read them.

Ever since arrived on the ship, Kasumi had tailed each and every one of the crew members to learn about them. From the stuck-up Miranda, to the completely and utterly insane Jack, she had learned everything she needed to know about her team-mates and the crew of the _Normandy SR-2_.

Except Verana.

The soldier always seemed to know when Kasumi was following her, even if her cloaking device had been activated. No matter what the master thief did, or where she hid, Verana always knew exactly where she was. Kasumi, of course, had asked Commander Shepard if Recon Hoods gave the wearer the ability to detect one in their cloak, but she only got a raised eyebrow and a, "No... Why?" Suffice to say, Kasumi left the conversation by turning invisible.

Verana had entered the port viewing deck of the Normandy where Kasumi had made her home, looked at the books on the shelf and pointed to them. Kasumi looked incredulously from her beloved shelf of books to the blue-clad soldier before she came to a decision.

"Only if you're careful," she told Verana.

Almost excitedly, the human woman chose her book, sat on the couch near Kasumi, and carefully turned through the pages as she read. This went on for several days. If Shepard didn't choose Verana or Kasumi to go out on a mission with her, Verana would appear in Kasumi's chosen room and point at the books, waiting for Kasumi's permission. She would then read the random book she chose for hours and then return it to its rightful place on the shelf. Kasumi, after Verana had left, would check said book to ensure its quality remained, and it always did.

It was about two weeks after Verana first read one of Kasumi's books that the master thief had been wandering about the ship. She'd decided to try to find out where Verana was staying during the time the soldier had been aboard the _Normandy_, but she couldn't figure it out. It seemed that no one knew where she'd made roots. Sometimes, she spent time with Dr. Chakwas in the med-bay, and others she'd be in the CIC, looking over the blueprints of the _Normandy SR-2_. She was a slippery one, to be sure.

Kasumi gave up on her search eventually and headed down to Engineering, thinking that Daniels and Donnelly would want to play some Skillian-five. Jack was currently out with Shepard, so there'd be no one to interrupt their loud game of poker. Kasumi was just crossing above the area that Jack had made her home when she heard a noise. Activating her cloaking device, Kasumi kept down the steps into the dark recesses of Engineering and listened for the noise again.

She recognized it when she heard it: someone was in a lot of pain, and trying their best to be quiet about it. Jack's absence presented the perfect domain of solitude. Kasumi, despite her cloak, used the deep shadows to her advantage, and found the one making those sounds.

Verana was cradling her left arm, her knees close to her chest as she rocked back and forth. She'd raised her Recon Hood enough so that her neck and mouth were visible, and so Kasumi could see Verana biting her lip, trying to divert the pain in her arm to a more distracting one at her lip. To Kasumi, it looked like the Verana just wanted to dissolve into a ball of nothingness and disappear for a little, as if she didn't want to trouble anyone else with her pain.

Kasumi deactivated her cloaking device and crouched in front of the soldier. "Verana, are you all right?" she asked tentatively.

She took a few deep breaths and then nodded, holding her arm just a little closer to herself.

"What's wrong with it?" Kasumi pressed, indicating the woman's arm.

Verana shook her head. It wasn't something she wanted to talk about quite yet, it seemed. Kasumi sat beside the soldier and put and arm around her comfortingly, since she had no idea what she could do. If Verana went through the trouble of hiding herself from others, it wouldn't do any good to talk to Shepard about it. Verana would talk about it when she was ready. Kasumi was certain of it.

When the soldier had calmed down and didn't seem to be hurting any longer, Kasumi helped her up. "Come on; let's go play some Skillian-five. It always puts me in a better mood. Mostly because I usually win, but hey."

Verana pulled her Recon Hood over the bottom half of her face and neck and followed Kasumi up the steps to where Daniels and Donnelly were. Kasumi and Verana, during the entire game, were neck-and-neck, so the only ones who truly lost were the enthusiastic engineers. Verana had a good poker-face, but her body-language would give her away.

The next day, Kasumi walked into her quarters from the shower to find a book in the place where she usually sat staring out at the stars with her memories of Keiji. She looked at her bookshelf, but saw none out of place. Kasumi picked up the book and wondered briefly if Verana had been reading in the Port Observation while Kasumi had been showering, but the thought left her as a paper note fell out of the book. She picked it up and read it quickly.

_It's blank._

_ Put whatever you want in here._

_ And thanks._

Kasumi read the brief note a few more times before she leafed through the pages of the book. It was, indeed, blank. Kasumi grinned, picked up a pen, and began to write.

_/-\_

Zaeed Massani could survive a gunshot to the face like a pro. People knew that, too; the right side of his face had been grafted back on due to one. He'd founded the Blue Sons, hunted slime-balls across the galaxy, and now, he was serving aboard the _Normandy SR-2_ because of a deal with Cerberus. One that didn't exactly go fulfilled, but he stayed on anyway; Shepard was the kind of person you followed into Hell and back, and that was just what her team was going to do.

But for all of his achievements and experience, fighting a kid half his age was proving difficult.

Zaeed knew that it shouldn't be like that; he'd been around longer, fought harder, and yet it wasn't enough. But Zaeed wasn't one to give up. He'd keep fighting until the last dog died, and then some. The old mercenary forced himself onto his feet and raised his fists, his eyes focused on his adversary.

He didn't know much about the blue-clad N7 soldier he was facing; she was quiet, always moving about the ship, but she'd somehow gained the respect of some of his team-mates. Jack, Grunt, Tali, Kasumi and Samara to name a few. Garrus, of course, was a given; Archangel would never have let her on his squad in the first place if they didn't respect each other.

Zaeed had wondered how long it would take for him to properly meet the N7 operative named Verana, but he had been right to assume that it'd be in this kind of a situation. Both soldiers, old and young, were stressed. There hadn't been shore leave, Shepard hadn't brought Zaeed with her for a while (obviously giving him some time to calm down because his Blue Sons co-founder, Vido Santiago, escaped when Shepard's conscience wouldn't let her leave those refinery workers behind), and Shepard still wasn't entirely certain that Verana was at one-hundred percent, despite when she'd brought the soldier along when they went to Tuchanka for Grunt's rite of passage.

The old mercenary assumed that Verana had spent some of her time on turian vessels, since they would fight to get their stress out. Her stance as well was very turian as she waited for him to come at her again. Zaeed had already had his head smashed against the table in the mess hall, his back thrown to the ground, and his body tossed across the table where Mess Sergeant Gardner would lay out the food he prepared (at least no food had been on it at the time).

Verana knew how to fight and use her environment to her advantage, Zaeed had to admit, but he just kept getting up. And even though they both were tiring, it was Verana who was the most exhausted.

A few of the crewman cheered the two fighters on. Zaeed tensed and then ran at Verana, readying a strong punch, when Jane Shepard entered the mess.

"_Stop this instant_!" the Commander ordered.

Not fast enough; Verana connected her head with Zaeed's effectively knocking him to the ground with the brute force that came from her head (a very krogan move, the old mercenary noted), and Zaeed's fist hit the human hard in the gut. Both of them were in a certain degree of pain that rendered them speechless (or, at least, rendered _him_ speechless).

"What the hell do you two think you're doing?!" Shepard demanded.

Zaeed held his throbbing forehead and looked up at the Commander. "Letting off a bit of steam, is all," he grumbled.

Shepard crossed her arms and glared daggers at them both. "And why do you have to let off steam _this_ way?"

"Well, I can't exactly shoot anything on board, now can I?" Zaeed retorted. "Unless you allow us to have some target practice on that geth in the core, mulling about it isn't going to help!"

There were a few choice words that the Commander used on them that made the rest of the crewmen silently disperse. Zaeed managed to block most of it out and was nursing his head when his thoughts went to Verana. Her left arm, although obviously not her favoured arm, was definitely her strongest, but she tried not to use it as much as possible during their brawl.

Zaeed wondered if he couldn't get her to tell him why not over a few friendly drinks. She'd earned that much, to say the least.

_/-\_

Sighing as she typed at her computer terminal, Executive Officer Miranda Lawson gave up on creating her report to the Illusive Man and rubbed her tired eyes. She knew that she'd been working too hard, but she couldn't get her mind off of her previous mission. Shepard, despite their disagreements about Cerberus, had taken Miranda to Illium, where Oriana, Miranda's genetic twin sister, was about to be taken back by their father. Shepard had helped to save Oriana.

Of course, Miranda had thanked Shepard as soon as the mission was over, and was relieved to have even had a conversation with her sister, but that was not the reason she was still troubled from the mission. There were more issues that needed to be addressed, but this one needed to be taken care of immediately.

"EDI, will you ask Verana to come to my office?" Miranda asked the AI.

"Of course, Ms. Lawson," EDI acknowledged, blinking in and out of Miranda's office.

A few minutes later, there was a knock at Miranda's door. Miranda pressed the button that allowed the door to open and beckoned the blue-clad soldier inside. From the moment Verana had arrived on the Normandy, Miranda's curiosity had gotten the better of her and she'd hacked through multiple Alliance files to discover what she could about the silent soldier. When that turned up nothing, Miranda had contacted Cerberus to aid her.

But, similar to Shepard, Verana was a complete unknown.

Verana sat in the chair opposite Miranda's desk and nodded to her, regarding her solemnly. Miranda folded her hands together and gave the soldier a once-over.

"Verana," she began, "I wanted to thank you."

Verana shrugged and waved her hand, indicating that what she'd done was no big deal. And yet, Miranda felt that it was something worth acknowledging. When they'd been on Oriana's tail, fighting through the seemingly-endless supply of mercenaries that her father had hired, Miranda had let her guard down. Verana noticed, and saved Miranda not once, but twice. Without the soldier, Miranda wouldn't have had that conversation with her twin.

"I'm serious," Miranda said sternly. "You killed a merc that nearly shot me in the back of the head, and then you almost got badly hurt when you protected me with your shields. I just wanted you to know that I'm grateful for what you've done."

Again, Verana waved her hand, but she nodded that time. Miranda smiled.

"There's nothing else I wanted to speak to you about," the Cerberus officer lied casually. "So if you wanted to get back to what you were doing—."

Verana held a finger up and then brought up her omni-tool. She pressed a few buttons with lightning-speed, and then graciously left the room. As she did, a notification came up on Miranda's desktop. Curious, Miranda opened the notification, which led straight to her e-mail. A new one had come in from an unknown sender.

It was a picture of Oriana and herself, smiling. The picture had obviously been taken from a distance and had been zoomed in, but it was a nice picture nonetheless. Miranda shook her head slowly from side-to-side when she saw the message attached to it.

_To cope with the separation._

_ Visit her often._

Miranda knew that Oriana would hack into her e-mail and see the picture. She also knew that she'd have to get a gift of thanks for their blue-clad N7 soldier.

_/-\_

Mordin Solus' day started out as a very dull one. Having gone over his notes numerous times to ensure that his formula would hold out when Shepard's team assaulted the Collector base on their so-called "suicide mission", Mordin's lightning-speed brain already confirmed that his formula would work.

Later in the day, Shepard had entered the Science Officer's lab and he'd told her of his fondness for Gilbert and Sullivan. After singing to successfully entertain the human Commander, he'd gone about humming the theme of "scientist salarian" wherever he went. Eventually, he went to the med-bay to check on Dr. Chakwas' status on injecting the rest of the team with his formula. He was surprised to see their blue-clad companion Verana there as well.

"Ah, Mordin," Chakwas greeted. "I was just about to give Verana your formula."

"Progress?" the salarian asked.

"Very well. It's working just as well as it did on Horizon. No current side-effects. An excellent job as usual, Doctor."

"Thank-you, Doctor," Mordin replied, smiling. "Injuries not numerous lately?"

Chakwas shook her head. "They've been taking care of themselves. Makes me lonely sometimes, but I've become much better at Skillian-five."

"Engineers Daniels and Donnelly hard at work. Good people. But the scientific mind allows no room for poker."

"But it allows room for Gilbert and Sullivan?" Mordin smiled wider at Dr. Chakwas' retort.

"Always room for Gilbert and Sullivan."

Dr. Chakwas injected Verana via needle and then pressed a cotton ball against her skin where the needle had gone in (Verana had to remove one of her gauntlets and roll up her sleeve for the needle). As Dr. Chakwas' back was turned, Verana leaned over and grabbed a bandage. By the time Chakwas had turned back to Verana with one in hand, the soldier had already secured it to her skin and rolled her sleeve down.

"I suppose I should have remembered that you like doing things yourself," the old doctor sighed. "Very well. You're free to wander again."

The blue-clad soldier nodded to Chakwas and slipped her gauntlet back on, leaving the med-bay. Mordin stayed a while longer to hear a more detailed response from Chakwas for his formula before he returned to his lab.

He heard a sound, faint at first, but when he focused on it, it became louder. He looked to where the sound was coming from and saw a small radio system. Wondering who could have left it there, Mordin picked it up and examined the songs in them. All Gilbert and Sullivan.

The salarian shook his head, but turned the volume up nonetheless.

_/-\_

The drell assassin Thane Krios was no stranger to silence. Many of his contracts had depended on such a thing, and so he became an expert at it. He also, within the first few hours of his arrival on the _Normandy_, managed to figure out what each and every gesture that Verana Hidparkas made.

So it wasn't uncommon that Verana would enter the drell's life-support sanctuary and have private, wordless conversations with him. Thane found that he enjoyed the conversations. He'd voice a question, and she'd mostly give him vague answers, but she was always honest.

Thane put his scaly hands on the table. "So, Verana... Where are you from?" The human soldier made a few quick gestures. "Earth?" She nodded. "Any cities I know?" She shook her head and made another gesture. "Small? Ah, a small place on Earth. Did you stay there long?" Again, she shook her head, and then made some wild gestures that Thane needed to take a moment to interpret. "Ah. The turians? So you went to Palaven for a time?"

Thane brought his hands up to his head and rested it in his palms as Verana went on to explain (vaguely) about herself. She'd been born on Earth, was raised by her father on Palaven, but she spent a lot of time amongst many different species'. She'd only really heard stories about drells and hadn't come across them much. Thane wasn't surprised; his kind were elusive.

The drell nodded and contributed to their conversation where necessary. He had been enjoying their time together when the door to the med-bay slid open. Thane saw that it was Commander Shepard. No doubt she had come to speak about the mission where they pursued Kolyat, his son.

Verana got up immediately and left the room before Shepard could open her mouth to apologize for interrupting them. Thane guessed that the younger soldier was uncomfortable around her superior officer. They both watched her go.

When the door closed, Shepard pointed at it. "I don't think she likes me."

"I think she just doesn't know how to act around you," Thane offered. "She's likely more used to having turians bark orders at her."

"That'd explain why she listens to Garrus," Shepard grumbled. "Wait, what do you mean by that?"

"She just told me that she spent a lot of time on Palaven, after her birth on Earth."

"Ooh..."

Thane invited the Commander to sit down, which she did. As he suspected, the topic went to Kolyat. But Thane's mind wondered why a human would be trained by turians, and what her parents must have thought about it. Maybe he'd ask, next time.

_/-\_

Jacob Taylor couldn't stand waiting. Sure, he was patient, but it was ridiculous now. The suicide mission that the Illusive Man had tasked them with was steadily looming ever closer, and Shepard had put thousands of credits into upgrading the _Normandy SR-2_, even going so far as to take time out of their busy schedule to get some closure for the crew (himself included), but he wasn't sure if he could wait any longer.

Shaking his head, Jacob left the armoury in the CIC and took the elevator down to the mess, where he was certain some food could calm him down. He couldn't think of any other way around his impatience, and exercising would only rile him up more.

Sitting down with the food Mess Sergeant Gardner handed him, Jacob began his meal. He glanced into the window of the med-bay when he'd stopped for a drink and saw the blue-clad N7 operative, Verana Hidparkas, speaking with the geth named "Legion". Jacob eyed the two for a while, wondering what they could be talking about. After a time, Verana shook her head and her shoulders; she seemed to be laughing. Jacob was certain that the geth didn't really make many jokes. That was about as likely as EDI making jokes.

Verana shook the geth's hand and left the med-bay, nodding to Dr. Chakwas on her way out. Jacob racked his mind with things he knew about Verana, and came up with basically nothing. Even after talking to Miranda about the soldier he'd gotten no more answers. She walked up to the fridge and was eyeing the dextro foods when Gardner tapped her shoulder and handed her a plate of food; the same Jacob had.

Verana sat at the opposite end of the table than Jacob, rolled her Recon Hood up above her mouth and began eating. Jacob could confirm that she wasn't a robot now, and he did so readily. He peeked up at her while pretending to be immersed into his meal: her lips were curvy and full, her neck was slender for a soldier, and now that he knew the proportions of her neck, he concluded that her shoulders were slender too, as if she was more of an athlete than a soldier.

Jacob reprimanded himself for staring at her and went back to eating. She was a fast eater and finished before him, so she slid her Recon Hood back down, stood up and carried her plate to the sink. Gardner thanked her, and she nodded in return. Jacob watched her leave the mess, but she left him with something to think about.

At least it'd help his patience.

_/-\_

Jane's breath came out in rapid gasps as she sprinted away from the Collectors. She spun around for a moment to fire her pistol at the pursuing Collectors. Only a few went down, but the former Protheans were strong, and Jane realized that she was just wasting ammo.

The end run was the longest yet. Jane's lungs begged for air, but if she stopped, she'd be caught, and she'd die along with the Collector's. She wasn't going to die at the very end, with the _Normandy_ in sight.

Garrus hopped into the ship first, followed by Tali. The platform crumbled as the Collector ship shook, the explosions beginning to start. In a panic, Jane pumped her legs harder. She heard a Collector behind her, coming closer. She wouldn't have enough time to spin around and shoot it in the face. Jane squeezed her eyes shut as she heard the Collector lunge for her—.

The Collector, milliseconds after Jane heard a gunshot, squealed in pain as it met its death throes. A sniper shot. Jane opened her eyes, expecting to see Garrus and his trusty sniper rifle, but she instead saw Verana, and the N7 soldier was reloading.

With newfound vigour, Jane scurried up the slope and launched herself over the gap, waving her arms to get some extra distance. She latched onto the floor of the _Normandy_'s airlock, and Garrus pulled her up, bringing her close to him. She sighed in relief as the door closed, separating them from the former Protheans, and crumpled into Garrus' arms in exhaustion.

She opened her eyes slightly to look at the soldier, who holstered her sniper rifle onto her back. Jane smiled at Verana.

"Thanks," she said weakly.

Verana's eyes seemed to regard her behind her Recon Hood, and then she nodded. "Anytime," she replied curtly.

Commander Jane Shepard was looking forward to the sleep she'd get. Suicide mission? Bah. Everyone was alive, and the Collectors would be no more.

Joker would see that they all got away, safe and sound.

End of Part One


	2. Part Two

Mass Effect:

The Road Not Taken

Part Two

Commander Jane Shepard's mind lingered to the past—hers, specifically. She remembered her life prior to the Alliance, and how she'd eventually gotten off of her homeworld, Earth, not daring to look back. However, Earth continued to draw her back to it. The Reapers arrived, people were dying, and Jane could do nothing but watch.

Not nothing, she corrected herself. She had been gathering allies for Earth for well over a month, and taken painstaking care to ensure she got as many as possible. Every bit of her effort was being rewarded.

But it wasn't enough.

Jane let her head fall gently into her hands as she sat at the edge of her bed. She felt unprepared, as if everything she was doing wouldn't matter in the end. Every minute, hundreds died, and there she was sitting in the Captain's cabin, unable to help with her own two hands. She cursed Anderson for making her leave Earth when she knew she could have helped, but she knew that the Admiral was right; for some reason, people followed her, and it wasn't because of her witty charm or bad jokes.

So Jane wondered why the people closest to her still trusted her unconditionally. They never looked back when she made a decision, never questioned her judgement; only encouraged her. And because she wasn't fast enough—wasn't strong enough, a few had died.

Legion, Mordin, Thane... Three former squad-mates gone in an instant. Three more names to put on the memorial wall. Jane could remember their final moments vividly; Legion's body as it crumpled to the ground, Mordin's back as he walked to the elevator on Tuchanka, Thane's eyes slowly glazing over... They'd all gone down fighting.

When Earth was attacked by the Reapers, Shepard began recruiting people to fight again. Ashley and James, both soldiers for the Alliance, came first; Liara had been rescued from Cerberus on Mars; EDI "acquired" a body from the Illusive Man; Garrus was fighting for Palaven before he rejoined the _Normandy_; Javik (a real live Prothean) was awakened from stasis on Eden Prime; and now Tali (Admiral Tali'Zorah, as she was now known) had rejoined the crew.

Jane got up from her bed and headed to her desk, where a new piece of armour awaited her. A Recon Hood, eerily similar to Verana Hidparkas', though it was black and ready to be painted a different colour. Jane decided, in the case that she really did paint the armoured parts of her new Recon Hood blue, she would inscribe her initials inside. Jane grabbed an heirloom Swiss army knife that had been with her since she was a baby and carved into the metal her initials.

Now that she thought about it, Jane had barely seen Verana around at all. Verana hadn't returned to the Normandy until after Thane's death during the Cerberus attack on the Citadel. She remembered that scene better than she could remember what she'd been doing before she'd come up to the Captain's cabin to mourn her lost friends.

The salarian council member's hands were up as Shepard and Kai Leng, a Cerberus operative, found a stalemate. And yet, Leng was confident of his capabilities. Jane was aware of his previous affiliations with the Alliance and N7 program, and so didn't underestimate the man. However, Thane leaped forward to save the salarian, and he and Leng began a terrifying brawl between two skilled and experienced assassins. The only difference was that Kai Leng was in full health, and Thane was slowly dying.

Leng, however, made the process faster by a hundred-fold. Thane was impaled by Leng's sword, and the Cerberus operative was making his escape. He hadn't killed the salarian, but Jane knew he was after the rest of the Council.

When Jane, Garrus and Liara were in hot pursuit, Leng disabled their X3M car and hopped onto one of his own that a Cerberus phantom was piloting. Jane managed to keep the X3M up in the air long enough to see Verana leap onto Kai Leng's and viciously attack him. She would have knocked him off of the car too, if something hadn't happened to the blue-clad soldier.

Jane wasn't entirely sure why, but Verana began screaming at the top of her lungs and grasped her left arm. The Commander was sure that Leng hadn't wounded her, but the soldier fell from Leng's X3M and into the street below. Jane and her squad had still beat Leng to the Council (Ashley ended up executing Udina), and with the Council safe, victory was assured.

Jane had searched for Verana first, since the medics had assured her that they were en-route to Thane. She'd found the N7 operative clutching her left arm and struggling to stand. When Jane had tried to help, she'd shaken the Commander off. Jane didn't know what was wrong with her, but she had a feeling that the soldier would open-up to her soon.

But that wasn't even Jane's biggest problem. For weeks, she'd felt nauseous and had to escape to the bathroom a few times because of her sickness. Jane had just returned from the med-bay, too annoyed to keep up with the nausea any longer. Dr. Chakwas had done a few tests, spent a little bit of time analysing the results and talking with her long-time friend,, and then...

"Commander? I think congratulations are in order."

Jane had raised an eyebrow at the old doctor. "What do you mean? Is it going away?"

Dr. Chakwas had smiled and sat beside Jane on the bed she'd been directed to twenty minutes before. "Far from it, Commander. You're pregnant."

Jane slipped with the Swiss army knife and cursed vehemently. Before she hurt herself, she put it down and stared aptly at the smooth grey surface of her desk. That was impossible. Surely a turian and a human couldn't have a baby? Jane shook her head and placed a hand gingerly on her abdomen. What would she tell Garrus? She wouldn't; not yet, at least. He'd never let her fight the Reapers if he knew she was pregnant. Dr. Chakwas had said that she was around two months along, which seemed about right, because that was when she and Garrus had... um, "reunited" on the Normandy.

Jane shook her head and then glanced at her terminal's blinking monitor. She reached forward and pressed the "receive" button. "Shepard."

_"Commander? I was wondering if you'd like to play some chess."_ Samantha Traynor's voice was almost a relief from Jane's headache. She'd needed something to take her mind off of things.

"Come on up, Traynor. I've got time," she replied.

_"Oh, and Commander?"_ Samantha continued, her nervousness showing through her voice. _"That soldier we picked up from the Citadel? Yeah, she's... Well, she kind of scares me."_

"How so?"

Samantha cleared her throat. _"Well, uh... She's been watching the crew in the CIC for a while now..."_

"Ooh." Jane grinned. "Verana does that. Just let her do her thing and she'll let you do yours."

_"She doesn't do this often, does she?"_

"Only when she feels like it."

_/-\_

Liara T'Soni's head was spinning. Her new job as the Shadow Broker offered her barely any free time to study her archaeological finds, even with Glyph aiding her. But the Crucible was nearing completion, and there were some things that only the Broker could do to aid it. The asari would always be on the lookout for things that their project needed to ensure their victory against the Reapers.

"Now if only we could have taken a Thresher Maw or two from Tuchanka and sent them against those things..." she muttered.

The asari wondered if she couldn't get her head to stop dizzying her if she paid a visit to Shepard, so she left the former Executive Officer's office (now remodelled into the perfect mobile Shadow Broker base) and headed to the elevator. When Liara turned the corner, she saw the blue-clad N7 soldier from the Citadel facing the memorial wall.

Liara noted that the soldier was about as frustrated with herself of the new names on the wall as Shepard was. Their hands clenched and unclenched, their shoulders were tense... The asari understood, even if she hadn't really known any of those people, that they had been precious friends to the two.

Liara, ever since first seeing the human named "Verana Hidparkas" on the Citadel, had to question whether or not she was actually human. She always hid under the signature blue-armoured Recon Hood, rarely ever spoke, and when she did, Liara had gotten reports that her voice was masked by a malfunctioning voice changer. And after trying to find something—anything!—on her through her Shadow Broker terminal, Liara came up with absolutely no response.

So, Liara turned to EDI, who possessed the body of a former scientist who was actually an AI. The body itself was crafted by Cerberus and had simulated skin on the body to pass off as a human, which would explain when the crew would see her skin when she would stop in the mess hall to eat. But not the eating itself, unfortunately.

The asari's mind had wandered off in her scientific thoughts, and so she didn't notice the human again until she was standing immediately in front of her, arms crossed over her chest. The message came in loud and clear: she could stand and stare at Liara just as well as Liara could stand and stare at her.

Liara shook her head to clear it. "I'm sorry," she apologized, stepping around Verana to get to the elevator.

Verana let her pass and stalked off, most likely taking the service ladder to go wherever she went. Liara watched her go while beating back the curiosity that threatened to make her stare rudely again.

_/-\_

Lieutenant James Vega couldn't remember the last time he was on the Citadel having a casual drink. Well, if you could count "casual" as "possibly-the-last-one-said-soldier-would-ever-have", then yeah, it had been a while.

Vega's eyes scanned the crowd in Purgatory before returning to his drink. Lately, the Commander had been refusing his offers to come to the bar with him. Garrus hadn't been bothered by Shepard going with him before, and the turian still wasn't. James wondered if the Commander just didn't want all the alcohol to come back up, since she'd been sick lately. Vega concluded it to be stress. It seemed like, these days, the entire galaxy, along with the billions of lives along with it, rested on her shoulders. James could remember the story of Atlas, a Greek titan, who carried the Earth on his, and was reminded of the Commander in that way.

Downing another drink and ordering a refill, James looked at the crowd of people in the bar. After the Cerberus attack, people on the Citadel came to the realization of what was _really_ going on. James smirked as he thought about the team he belonged to; the one that went around the galaxy to save it. James felt proud to be serving under Commander Shepard.

Vega's eyes wandered long enough to notice people he hadn't noticed before: a woman named Jack who taught the kids at Grissom Academy, and the N7 soldier who always wore blue. The two were having a few drinks together at a table, and seemed to be enjoying one another's company. Vega had, of course, seen the soldier named Verana around the _Normandy SR-2_, but he'd never seen her smiling before. Of course, he'd never seen the bottom-half of her face before, so that helped a lot. The two women clinked drinks and then downed them in a single gulp, and James wondered if he shouldn't join them. After all, they'd served on the _Normandy_ before.

James grabbed his drink and began to carefully make his way over to them when Jack roared in laughter, clutching her sides in pain. Verana's smile widened, revealing white teeth.

Jack slammed her hand on the table. "Well shit, Blue! You know some jokes!"

The N7 operative took a swig of her drink and then handed the empty glass to a waitress, who promptly filled it. "I try."

James blinked. He'd probably heard Verana say one word before (and that had been to inform him that he was in her way), and with the voice changer she'd sounded like a robot. But now that her Recon Hood was rolled up enough to expose her mouth and neck, she sounded like a real woman. Not a robot, but vaguely familiar to him.

"The galaxy's gone to hell and you're telling jokes..." Jack shook her head. "Blue, try not to change much, 'kay?"

James caught the little movement that Verana made; the woman released her glass casually and rested her hands under the table on top of her lap, where her right hand gently rubbed her left arm. She only smiled in reply to her friend.

Vega, in the end, decided not to join them. He tipped the last of his alcohol down his throat, handed the glass to a waitress, and left Purgatory with a cocky smile on his face. He'd have a new story to tell Vakarian; one he knew would make even the turian flinch.

_/-\_

Perhaps she was just detached from the rest of the crew, but Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams was pretty sure that she'd never seen the N7 operative named Verana Hidparkas before, or even heard her name mentioned. With someone like her, she was pretty sure she would've seen her name on a duty roster or something, considering she didn't take orders very well unless they were in the middle of fighting for their lives. Shepard was fine with Verana acting the way she did, as long as she didn't get anyone hurt doing it.

But Ashley wasn't "fine" with it.

And now, she was on a hunt around the _Normandy_ to find the soldier. She'd looked everywhere from the CIC to the shuttle bay (and she was pretty certain that Verana wasn't in the Commander's room), but Verana was like a ghost on the _Normandy_. Ashley stomped all the way back to the Starboard Observation room and sulked for a while.

She realized how childish it was and decided to mull things over in the shower, and maybe even think of a hiding place that the soldier could be. Ashley was just leaving her adopted room when James Vega, a soldier she'd known only as an acquaintance, was about to knock.

"Vega?" Ashley didn't hide the surprise in her voice. James rarely left the shuttle bay, where he had made his home and his main area of exercise. "What's going on?"

James grinned. "You know Verana?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, have I got a story for you..."

"Shouldn't you be telling Garrus your story?" Ashley asked.

Vega huffed and crossed his arms. "I went to the main battery to tell him, but all I got was, 'Can it wait for a bit? I'm in the middle of some calibrations'."

Ashley smiled. "Sounds like Garrus." She gestured for James to come in, and so he sat on the couch when he did.

"I was down in Purgatory," he began, "when I saw Verana and that Grissom Academy psycho, Jack. They were having a couple drinks, y'know? Like they were best buds. Anyway, Verana spoke to Jack without her voice changer, so I got to hear her."

"She doesn't take that thing off much?"

James grinned. "I asked Scars about that. He said she was in his squad when he was 'Archangel', but she disappeared before Sidonis betrayed them. He never saw her without it. Like the Recon Hood was important or something."

"I actually saw her on Horizon," Ashley admitted. "Just glanced at her though. I was busy with other things before the Collectors attacked."

"I can imagine, out in the colonies and all." James laid down on the couch and tucked his hands behind his head. "Hey, can I ask you something, Williams?"

Ashley watched James. "What is it?"

"Does the Commander seem a little... uh, I dunno... _off_? She's just not herself lately."

"I heard that even Garrus can't talk to her right now." She tapped her chin. "Stress, I suppose. A lot of good soldiers have died. My brother-in-law was one of them."

"We've all got people that we've lost in the war," Vega murmured.

Stress, however, had never gotten her Commander before. Shepard was a tank, and a dedicated soldier to boot. She would never lose her momentum unless she had died, and maybe not even then. Ashley could remember a few times she'd been in the elevator with Shepard, when all of a sudden the Commander would get off on the Crew Deck and sprint to the bathroom. And then, after a few days, a visit to Dr. Chakwas had Shepard beginning to act oddly.

Ashley's eyes widened. "Wait... Do you think that Shepard's...?"

"That Shepard's what?" Vega prompted.

Ashley leaned in close to the marine. "_Pregnant_?" she whispered.

James scoffed and sat up. "I slept through health class, so I don't know what the hell a woman goes through to figure _that_ out."

Frowning, Ashley turned away from him and crossed her arms, facing the door. But her frown quickly turned into shock when she saw that Vega hadn't shut the door behind him.

And who could be standing there but Verana Hidparkas?

From the way she stood there, her hand out in a fist as if she were about to knock, Ashley guessed that she'd heard what her theory was. The soldier spun on her heel and headed for the nearest service ladder. Ashley had to admit that the soldier was smart. If she'd gone for the elevator, Ashley would have been there.

Since Shepard was like a sister to Ashley, she wanted the Commander to come to her, rather than the Commander hearing about her "speculations". And it would be just _peachy_ if the Commander heard about that from Verana.

James snorted. "I know what you're thinking, but forget it, Williams. She doesn't even talk to the Commander."

"I know," Ashley muttered. "I just realized that I'd been looking for her for the past two hours, and she just got away."

Vega chuckled and walked out the door. "Good luck, Williams. Now I'm sure she'll find an even better hiding spot."

_/-\_

Being in the med-bay of the _Normandy_ wasn't how Tali had planned her evening to end up. It hadn't even been in the back of her mind. But now that she was there, she wasn't entirely sure if she could go back to Engineering and check the Normandy's systems. Even drinking some alcohol with Garrus through the emergency exhaust port she'd just discovered was out of the question.

Dr. Chakwas pressed a button under her desk. Metal shutters slid down the windows through the roof and covered the view from the mess hall, in and out. Tali understood that this was an extremely sensitive matter that she was being trusted with.

On one of the medical tables was Verana Hidparkas, and she was writhing around in agony, clutching her left arm in a death-grip. Tali had found her in Engineering, where Jack had once made her home. The quarian had been in the middle of a conversation with Kasumi Goto, the master thief, via omni-tool when she'd run across Verana. Tali promised to call Kasumi back and explained that Verana wasn't looking too good. Since they were docked at the Citadel, Kasumi replied that she'd be on the Normandy soon.

Tali had seen Verana in the human fetal position and came over to ask what was wrong. The answer the quarian got was a scream and Verana's left fist launching towards Tali's face. The quarian felt lucky that the human soldier was sluggish, or else her helmet would have cracked in her face. Tali moved out of the way just in time, and instead Verana's left arm slammed into a heavy crate. The crate flew across the room and hit the wall, somehow sticking into it. And when Verana crumpled to the ground, unconscious and breathing difficultly, Tali decided that it was best to bring the human for a check-up with the doctor.

"I'm here," Kasumi announced, appearing beside the quarian (and effectively startling her). "Is she okay?"

Tali sat on the bed opposite Verana. "I don't know yet," she admitted.

Kasumi paced as Dr. Chakwas grabbed a needle on the counter. "What's wrong with her?" the thief asked.

Dr. Chakwas looked from Verana to the two women. "You two must promise that you don't breathe a word of this out of the med-bay," the doctor said. When the two nodded, Dr. Chakwas rolled up Verana's right sleeve and began to take a blood sample. Verana had seemed to calm down a bit. "On our suicide mission several months ago, Verana was put in a support role. Remember?"

Tali nodded. "When I was in that heating tube, she shot any Collectors that were attacking it so they couldn't get to me. She gave Shepard some more time to give me a path through it, as well."

"And when Shepard got to me and the rest of the crew, and sent Mordin to take us back to the _Normandy_, Verana had to help us in a few tight spots." Dr. Chakwas pulled the needle out of Verana's arm. "That was when I noticed that the Collectors acted as if she didn't exist. They didn't notice her, didn't attack her, and she used it to her advantage."

Kasumi stopped pacing. "How could they ignore her? Does she have some sort of stealth system in her armour?"

Dr. Chakwas shook her head. "I'm certain she doesn't. I have a theory that it has to do with her being on Horizon all those months ago."

"What I want to know is why she would attack me," Tali muttered.

Kasumi whirled on her. "She _what_?!"

"When you hung up, I asked her what was wrong. She tried to punch me. She missed, but she hit a crate and it's stuck in the wall in Engineering now."

"It's possible that her mind was clouded and she was trying to find a way to expel her pain," the doctor said.

"By trying to hit Tali?! What's wrong with her that could hurt so much?!" Kasumi snapped.

Dr. Chakwas held up the small vial of Verana's blood to show the two other women. The liquid inside was a dark violet. "Her blood is distilled because of what happened on Horizon."

Tali leaned in closer to see it. It was definitely thick as blood. "_What_ happened on Horizon?"

Dr. Chakwas placed the vial on the counter and reached for Verana's left arm. The pain had, apparently, gone down, and Verana's chest was rhythmically rising up and down in sleep. The old doctor removed the soldier's gauntlet and rolled up the sleeve.

"Dragon's Teeth," the doctor said simply.

Tali's eyes widened when she looked at the human's arm. The familiar, dull blue glow slowly pulsed through Verana's veins, and small tubes protruded from her arm, only to enter the flesh again. The skin on her arm looked sickly, and Tali wondered if Verana herself looked as sick.

"Now you understand why this is a sensitive matter," Dr. Chakwas said. "I owe Verana, so as long as she's on this ship, I'm going to help her."

Kasumi pointed at her arm. "She's... a Reaper?"

"She's human," the old doctor stated. "I'm going to try to make sure she stays that way." Dr. Chakwas sighed and replaced the soldier's sleeve and gauntlet. "Shepard cannot know about this quite yet. I'm not sure if she'd see Verana as a fellow crew member if she did, because of her fight against the Reapers. Javik is one I'll definitely ensure won't find out. He'll likely want revenge for his people."

_/-\_

Javik wasn't certain what to think about the humans. Fifty-thousand years ago, their wars had been fought with sticks and stones. Now, with weapons similar to the ones his people had wielded. The humans saw his people as an ancient, extinct civilization, but some aliens saw his kind as Gods. He had to deliberate their sanity by himself.

The young asari named Liara enjoyed paying him visits to ask him questions. He didn't mind a few, but she sometimes went overboard and could barely wait for an answer before she began another question. Javik questioned her sanity as well.

He had been patient on this quest against the Reapers, but recently the Commander had not been acting as a Commander should. She'd been reclusive, something Javik didn't see in a military officer, and a few hours ago, she'd called up Garrus. Javik was made aware of their "relationship", though he didn't quite understand why they were even _in_ one. They were in the middle of a war, after all, and they were two completely different species. The Commander didn't even use a sniper rifle!

Javik had been in the mess hall watching the crew when Garrus had walked past him, and just the look in his eyes made Javik wonder what could possibly be wrong. He didn't have long to think though; he was soon on a mission with the Commander to Thessia.

Javik had once experienced first-hand the destruction of his home, and seeing Liara go through such a thing made the Prothean wonder if they could ever stop the cycles. The Commander, however, was all business from the moment she set foot on the ravaged planet, and so he watched her, wondering how good a Prothean she would have made.

They'd spent hours on the planet in firefights, and by the time they finally reached the VI they were looking for, the organization called "Cerberus" arrived. Kai Leng was a name that Javik had heard before, and he'd been looking forward to fighting this adversary, but the human was skilled beyond compare, and was making off with the VI.

That was when all four of Javik's eyes widened in bewilderment.

The Commander had a preference to bring only two squad members along for maximum performance, so the Prothean was surprised to see the human who never showed her face named "Verana Hidparkas". She tackled Leng to the ground, but before she could do any damage, he sliced at her chest, tossed her off of him into a relic in the asari temple and boarded his escape vehicle.

As the Commander fired her last shots at the escaping Leng, Verana slammed her fist hard into the ground, crumbling the stone. Javik remembered that she'd had an encounter with Kai Leng before, and it had ended in failure. She had fought to avenge her former squad-mate, a drell named Thane Krios.

The attack that Leng had made at her chest cut through the armour, and she didn't appear wounded physically. The Prothean had no doubt that it was her pride as a warrior that took the fall instead.

Liara aided the human in standing up as the Commander began to call for extraction, her very being bristling with anger. Verana allowed herself to be helped up, but stared at the spot that Leng's vehicle had been. Javik had a feeling that she'd want to be there for the incoming assault on Cerberus. He had no doubt it would come to that; the Commander looked like she was done asking for their aid as a part of humanity. She wanted blood and revenge, but as a Commander, she wouldn't voice it.

Verana, however, was a different story. Javik felt that her frustrations would begin to show very soon.

_/-\_

Jane was not impressed.

These days, it was difficult for her to be, but she really couldn't find words to express how angry and frustrated she was. Verana Hidparkas stood in front of her, hands clasped behind her back, her stance that of a soldier's. Her behaviour on Illium had been anything but.

"I gave strict orders for all to stay on the Normandy!" she snapped, pacing quickly in front of the N7 operative. "And you didn't follow them! Do you have a reason to give me?!"

The soldier remained silent for a time as Jane's eyes bored into the lenses of Verana's Recon Hood. She did not shift, did not waver, and Jane was still finding it hard to read her properly.

"I have no reason." Verana's voice, as usual, was covered up by the voice changer. Jane realized that this had been the longest "conversation" she'd ever had with the operative.

Jane sighed, her shoulders relaxing, and sat on her desk in her room. Verana didn't move. "I appreciate your effort, but you know why I only take two others with me, right?"

Verana shook her head slowly from side-to-side. Jane took her time to answer so she would get to examine the soldier. She was very lean, about as tall as herself, and a damn good shot with a sniper rifle (unlike Jane). The gash across her chest's armour that came from Kai Leng hadn't been repaired, and Jane had a feeling that it never would be.

"It's so that I can make sure that I can be at my best for them. If there's only two, then I know where they are. Three? I know I'm bound to fail."

"You'll fail if you go against Kai Leng again!" Jane's eyes snapped up to the soldier, who was clenching her fists at her sides, but seemed just as surprised as Jane for her outburst.

Jane smirked. "Have some faith, soldier. We'll win this yet."

_/-\_

In the last several days, "faith" hadn't won them any battles. It was hard work and dedication, and Jane was aware of that. Her eyes fluttered, dangerously close to closing for good. She coughed blood. She didn't have the energy to cover her mouth, so the blood got all over her and the body of Anderson, her superior officer. It didn't matter though; there was already so much blood that had escaped her that the new stuff blended with ease.

She'd pursued Cerberus and Kai Leng to Horizon, saved her friend Miranda Lawson and her sister Oriana, and then gone to the Illusive Man's headquarters for a final showdown with him that never happened. But Kai Leng had died, thankfully.

She could remember it well; Kai Leng had approached her from behind after being defeated in combat and tried to stab Jane. She'd deflected his attack and thrust her omni-blade into his abdomen.

_"That was for Thane you son of a bitch!"_ she'd growled.

And then she felt the cold metal of a pistol being pressed against her stomach. Kai Leng was going to kill her, no matter what. For a brief second, Jane's heart exploded with speed, panic flooding through her, but then Leng fell after a gunshot erupted in the Illusive Man's office.

Jane's eyes tore from Kai Leng's crumpled body to Verana Hidparkas, her pistol still pointed at Leng's corpse. She'd disobeyed orders again, but then Jane remembered Verana's outburst:

_"You'll fail if you go against Kai Leng again!"_

Shepard had been surprised, but she resolved to thank Verana afterward. They had the VI, knew what the Catalyst was, and needed to get to Earth. Hours upon hours were spent fighting the Reapers before they finally reached their goal. Garrus had been wounded in the charge to the Citadel, and Jane had called in the _Normandy_ to get him out. Before Thessia, Jane had told Garrus about the baby. As she'd expected, he was against her fighting, but relented if he was with her, right beside her. She'd made him let go of them both; she and the baby, when she put him on the _Normandy_.

Jane wasn't very sure, but she thought she saw the familiar blue-clad N7 soldier leap off the loading ramp and charge before her. She lost sight quickly though, as many other soldiers who were involved in the program wore blue. It was a popular colour.

And then Harbinger arrived. Jane could barely recall what had happened from the time she'd hobbled to the beam that would take her to the Citadel to when Anderson died. She _did_ remember that the Illusive Man shot himself in the head once he realized that he'd been indoctrinated. Justice at its finest.

Jane's eyes wavered as she reached for the console to activate the Catalyst, and then they closed. She could still feel every painful breath and muscle in her body though, so she knew she wasn't dead. Death didn't have that much pain.

She felt her body begin to rise on a platform, and when she opened her eyes again, blood clouding her vision, she spied the young boy she'd tried to save on Earth. He glowed though, and was transparent. She barely registered that he'd called himself the Catalyst.

"Wha—?"

"_Stop_!" Jane was interrupted by Verana. At least, she _thought_ it was Verana. She hadn't heard the voice changer. "Shepard, stop!"

Jane's eyes regarded the soldier. Her blue armour was as black as Jane's own, and half of the face of her Recon Hood was missing, as well as most of the bottom half. Jane examined Verana with an interest that she thought she'd never had towards the soldier, wondering if it'd be the last time she saw her. Verana's face was pale, with strawberry-blonde hair that spiked outward at the back of her skull, which reminded Jane of a turian's fringe. She had dark, crystalline blue eyes that seemed sharper than a blade, and they focused on the Catalyst, but Verana went to Jane first. Jane noted the violet liquid coming from the cuts on her body, and... were those wires on her arm?

The soldier gently picked Jane up and attached something to her back. "What're you... doing?" Jane murmured.

"I'm sorry." Jane was confused as to why the soldier was apologizing, and was about to ask when she continued, "I put a shield on you, so it'll help. But you need to leave."

"_No_!" she gasped firmly.

Verana's eyes bored into Jane's green. "You don't have a choice, Commander. You have a duty that you need to fulfill." Jane grasped Verana's right arm and stared at the younger woman. The blonde smiled weakly. "I'm sorry that we didn't get to know each other better; it was my own fault that we didn't. But I hope you can find your happiness." Verana smiled. "And besides; you need to be a different kind of hero, right?" She patted Jane's abdomen and then pressed a button on the mobile shield she'd put on Jane's back. "Nice knowing you, Commander."

Jane lunged forward, using whatever strength she had left, and was put on her back with little effort from Verana. The soldier smiled down at her, pried the pistol from Jane's hands, took the ruined Recon Hood off of her head and dropped it on Jane's chest before starting forward.

"By the way," Verana called back, "I left you a little something. If you can find it, you can have it!"

Jane heard the shots fired, and then her world went black.

_/-\_

Commander Jane Shepard spent weeks in the hospital. Her body had mostly healed from the wounds she'd received from Harbinger, but she wasn't certain if her mind had yet. The mass effect generators were being repaired with renewed vigour by all human, turian, krogan and quarian nearby. Synthetic life was no more, but even now, everyone was trying to bring it back. Jane knew that Joker wouldn't give up until EDI was back, and Tali had yet to thank the geth for their aid.

Garrus poked his head in through the doorway of her hospital room and smiled a very turian smile. "Shepard," he regarded. "I hope you're in the mood for surprises."

Jane grinned at him, so Garrus took that as his queue to enter. Jack, Kasumi, Tali, Ashley and Jacob followed. Jane shook her head at the sight of them, but didn't wipe the smile off of her face.

"Hey," she greeted.

"Morning, Shepard," Ashley replied for all of them.

Garrus sat beside Jane and held her hand. "Some couldn't make it because of clean-up, but I managed to get a few."

"It's nice to see you all," Jane said.

Ashley pointed to the mound on Jane's stomach. "Can I just say that I knew it back on the _Normandy_?"

"Something like this wouldn't get past you," Jane admitted.

"Shepard, speaking of the _Normandy_..." Kasumi placed a small black box on Jane's lap. "We were looking through it and found this in Engineering, where Jack used to be."

Everyone looked at Jack, who crossed her arms. "Please. It isn't mine. Where do you think I'd put that thing?! It's not like I have any goddamn pockets..."

Jane brushed her hand along the box and pressed a button at its side. It opened up, and a transparent screen appeared. Jane was reminded of the "little something" that Verana had claimed to leave her. She wondered why the soldier had stopped her, and how she had managed to get to the beam. She likely possessed the same tenacity as Jane herself.

_"Password,"_ the terminal prompted.

Garrus blinked. "Password? What the hell's inside?"

Jane looked at the master thief. "Kasumi?"

"Leave it to me..." Kasumi fiddled with the machine for a while before the "password overridden" message came on the screen. "Ta-da!"

Jane smiled and shook her head, and then looked at the screen. "Video logs..." she murmured.

Garrus reached over and pressed the "play" button. Static consumed the screen for a moment before someone was shown adjusting the video. Jane recognized Verana without her Recon Hood, but no one else seemed to. In fact, Verana's Recon Hood was in the drawer of the nightstand beside Jane's bedside.

_"Well, the guys convinced me to do a video log, so I'm gonna do it. Seems pointless though..."_ Verana grinned as some men yelled something at her, and she playfully stuck her tongue out at them. _"Okay, so let's get this party started: the squad and I are going on a hunt for raiders around Omega. Let's just hope we catch 'em; they've been terrorizing a few merchants lately."_ A krogan grumbled something in the background. Verana grinned again. _"Shut it, Mordin! You try it! This is hard! Who's gonna watch it after I record it? Me?"_

The feed was cut-off abruptly. Jane's eyes narrowed in confusion.

"Who was that?" Jacob asked.

Jane shook her head. "Verana..."

The next feed began. Verana's armour was damaged, but she had her Recon Hood on that time. _"Okay,"_ she mumbled, _"I'm on Omega; that much I'm sure of. But my squad... Damn it, Mordin... We hit the mass effect generator with our ship, and the raiders fired on it. Next thing I knew, I was on Omega. Pretty sure I crash-landed, too. At least I've got my weapons. I need to move, or else they could find me."_

The feed crackled and then brought up another. In it, Verana wasn't wearing her Recon Hood, and had a stricken look on her face. She shook her head a few times, as if to clear it.

_"I just met Archangel,"_ she murmured, as if in disbelief. _"I met _GarrusVakarian_. He doesn't know who I am. He doesn't recognize my armour... I-I looked at the date! Goddammit! I'm not where I should be! Shepard's dead! I'm joining up to see what I can find out. Something's not right. I need to figure out how to get back home to dad... What the hell kind of mess did I get into...?"_

A "corrupted data" message came up, so the logs skipped to one that was still intact. Jane recognized the room Verana was in; the bathroom on the _Normandy_.

_"Shepard's alive!"_ she exclaimed into the video, her eyes widening in excitement. _"Holy crap! It's just like dad said! And I almost punched her in the face!" _Verana facepalmed. "_Spirits, I feel like an idiot... I haven't got the courage to face her..."_ She looked downcast for a moment before she glared into the camera. _"My arm got hit by one of those 'Dragon's Teeth' things I heard about. I'm... Shit, I'll have to hide it from the crew. They'll kill me on sight if they know."_

More data came up as corrupted, so Kasumi filed through the rest of the videos. Only one remained that was able to play. Verana looked tired and weary, but she had the same sharp look in her eyes.

_"To whomever gets this (and I sincerely hope it's you, Shepard)... I'm not one to accept fate. I've fought against fate for years, hoping and praying that I wouldn't be expected to be as great as you, Shepard. My dad didn't expect it of me, but out of us both, I was the one who survived... And you can't imagine the guilt I feel because of that. Oh, 'us'? I mean you and I, Shepard."_ Jane blinked. _But I'm right here..._ she thought, confused. Verana rolled her eyes. _"Damn, I'm saying this wrong. I'm not good with explaining things. I like getting it out of my system and giving you the low-down on what's going on. But... it's hard, you know? No, you probably don't..."_ Verana rubbed the back of her head. _"Well, for starters, my name isn't 'Verana Hidparkas'. I came up with that name on the spot. I've got a soft spot for anagrams, so it seemed like a good alias at the time."_ She cleared her throat. _"It's an anagram of my parents' last names. I wasn't ever sure which one to pick... My real name's Ashen. It's based off of my godmother's name: Ashley."_

Ashley looked from Jane to Verana—_Ashen_, she corrected herself—in confusion. "Huh?"

Jane was about as lost as Ashley. _"Crap, I stink at this!"_ Ashen grumbled, as if she knew what the two other women were thinking. _"Goddammit just say the damn thing! If dad ever finds this log, he's never gonna let auntie Jack near me again, with all the colourful language I heard from her..."_ Ashen breathed. _"The anagram is of 'Shepard' and 'Vakarian'. Shepard... Where I come from, Kai Leng wounded you badly enough that, when you found the Catalyst and saved Earth, you died in the process. I was born prematurely, and my dad, Garrus, raised me by himself. I'm half turian and half human, so tell Dr. Chakwas that my blood wasn't distilled because of the Reaper tech; it's my natural blood. Red and blue cells make purple, right?"_ Ashen rubbed her temples. _"I'm wearing your armour, Shepard. I'm wearing your Recon Hood. It's for you, because you're my mom, and even though I didn't know you, I honour you like one. I don't think I'll be able to say this at the end, but... Mom, dad, I love you. Try to be my heroes, okay? And don't ever change. I'll take the bullet this time, so that the other 'me' can know you guys. I'm not gonna let the Reapers win. I know your choice, and in my time, we rebuilt synthetics, so I included a few blueprints to help out. EDI, the geth—it's all there. I won't let your choice be in vain."_ Ashen smirked. _"And thank the crew. I got to know everyone, and I'm happy, since a few I hadn't even met before."_ EDI's voice penetrated the bowls of Engineering to announce the arrival to Earth. _"I have to go now. Live, okay? Be parents together. And tell auntie Jack that her biotics were weak back in the day!"_

"_Weak_?!" Jack snapped. "Are you kidding?! I had your ass on the ground, you little shit!"

Jane reached into the drawer of the nightstand and grabbed the ruined Recon Hood from within. She examined the inside with her fingers, and discovered the initials "JS" inside. Her hand unconsciously went to the baby, and Garrus' hand met her there.

"Ashen," Jane muttered, as if in a trance.

Garrus kissed Jane's stomach. "Perfect," he agreed.


	3. Author's Notes

Author's Notes

Well, this idea was stuck in my head for a while, and so I decided to put it on paper. I know it's a far-fetched ending, but I still like it better than the original ones. It's like taking the _Mass Effect_ universe into my own hands and moulding a better ending (like many others have wanted to do...).

When I first started the _Mass Effect_ series (started with _Mass Effect 2_ on PS3), I was wary of it. I didn't want it to be a _Star Wars_ knock-off, since BioWare made a few Star Wars games, and so I was pleasantly surprised by it and highly recommend it, despite the ending.

So I hope you enjoyed _Mass Effect: The Road Not Taken_, and that you have a great day/night!

_**Fan-Fic Theme: I'm Proud of You—Mass Effect 3 Soundtrack**_


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